$450,000 Settlement for Truck Driver Hit While Changing Tire

A young, recently married couple from a small town in Southern Illinois was faced with uncertainty after the husband was involved in a terrible truck accident. The husband drives a truck for a living, and was travelling on Highway 57 near Effingham, Illinois, when he had a tire blow out on his tractor-trailer. He put on his flashers and pulled his truck completely off the highway on to the shoulder.

He was bent over under his truck checking the tire when another big rig drove on to the shoulder and crashed in to the back of his trailer. He was slammed against the ground and dragged underneath his truck. No one knows if the driver of the other truck was impaired, or fell asleep or was distracted, because it burst in to flames after the crash and the driver died in the fire.

After the crash, the client and his wife called Kevin Sullivan at the Sauter Sullivan law firm for help. The young truck driver had suffered some pretty serious injuries that left him with chronic back pain and other issues. He had herniated disks in his back from the accident, and was told by the orthopedic spine specialist that he would need surgery in the future to fix the problems with his spine. The stress of the whole situation, the issues her husband was facing and the uncertainty of the future had affected the wife and her relationship with her husband. To make matters worse, the insurance company for the truck driver that caused the accident was saying that this 25 year old man’s back condition was pre-existing and did not want to pay for a future surgery. Sauter Sullivan filed a lawsuit on behalf of the couple, and sought to have the insurance company be responsible for all of the husband’s medical bills, wage loss, a future surgery and his pain and suffering. The lawsuit also sought to have the insurance company pay for the damage to this young couple’s marital relationship caused by the negligence of the truck driver. After a mediation with the Judge, Sauter Sullivan reached a settlement in the case in the amount of $450,000.